The Pocket Candy palettes from Lime Crime have a mixed reputation. It’s one of the reasons I put off purchasing them for so long. In this post, I am going to list them from best to worst.

Each cost £31 from UK Suppliers or $34 from Lime Crime direct. They have 10.08g (4 x 2.23g, 1 x 1.16g) of product and a 24 month shelf life once opened. They’re described as

Limes Crime’s latest cruelty free and vegan eyeshadow palettes are inspired by 90s nostalgia. Each makeup palette features an assortment of both bright colors and neutral toned eyeshadows. Our cutting-edge formula offers high-end pigments that are smooth and easy to apply, but also long-lasting and powerful.

We have carefully combined each set with colors that will always work together. These pressed eyeshadows can be applied to both the eyes and cheeks for a pop of color, and come in a glossy mirrored compact that is easy to take on the go as it fits right in your pocket.

There’s one other thing to be noted. They are called face palettes because some of the pigments have ingredients that can cause staining, which means the FDA hasn’t passed them as eye safe. However they have passed EU laws (which are stricter) for eye safety. There’s only two shades in each of the palettes that are eye safe in the USA.

So let’s get into each palette.

Sugar Plum

The best of the bunch is Sugar Plum (in the pink packaging). All of the eye shadows are nicely pigmented and blendable. I had the easiest time getting this swatch.

Nutcracker – Chesnut matte, which goes on very well and is very pigmented.

Candied Plum – described as a pink purple shimmer, you can’t really see the purple in this one at all.

Fairy Floss – Pink undetone shadow with a lavendar shift. This one is quite sheer but is described as such.

Icing – is a bright white frost, this one does have small issues with hard pan. Other than that it’s a super shiny white colour with great pigmenation.

Only Nutcracker and Icing are considered eye safe in the USA.

Pink Lemonade

This one swatched ‘okay’ by which I mean I did have to work a little bit to get soild swatches. I also want you to scroll back up and take a look and tell me you don’t think these swatch really similar to Sugar Plum.
The main problem with this palette is sheerness, so when you place all four colours on the eye they end up being almost indisingusable from one another.

Brown Sugar – A pink brown satin. It blends well but loses depth on the eye. It turns basically pink on me so essentially becomes the same as the other colours.

Pink Jelly – Lacks pigment, especially blended out on the eye.

Strawberry – It’s sheer but does place a wash of colour. Wet application does not improve it’s performance. There’s also pink glitter in this one.

Lemonade – It’s very sheer even over a white base but it does have colour. It doesn’t increase in depth when used wet. I do not understand the videos I have seen on this because it does work wet and it doesn’t crumble.

Only Lemonade and Baby Cake are considered eye safe in the USA.

Bubblegum

This the worse for pigmenation. I really had to work to get these swatches. These also have problems with hard pan.

Blow – It’s described as baby violet satin, it’s more of a hot violet colour. It’s also pigmented but blends away to nothing really easily. This one has hard pan issues.

Chew – Called a toased nude. I really like this shade. it’s a really good transition shade and doesn’t have pigmentation or blending issue.

Pop – It’s a pink champagne shimmer, I’m going to call it the poor mans Kitten Parade because that’s what it is. It’s barely got any pigment and the shimmer blends away so easily.

Snap – It’s a cotton candy pink with pink glitter. No this one feels like it has no pigment but I feel that’s more of a combination of the fact it’s such a light colour and so shiny.

Bubble – This sky bule shimmer has the same issue as Snap. It’s a light pastel shade, so while it feels like there’s no pigment, there’s not really supposed to be and the shine make it feels like there’s even less.

Only Bubble and Chew are considered eye safe in the USA.

I think these palettes overall are nowhere as bad as the scathing reviews they were given and I’m left to wondering if some of those reviews were the paid negative reviews we have now learnt about. I have a few of the issues stated, sheerness and hardpan but they’re not unusable. They blend well and do look good on the eye, although some of them are very simliar on the eye due to sheerness issues.

I feel like they’re okay palettes despite the issues. I think they came off the back of the Venus pigmentation and that’s not what they are. They seem to be the middle child between the Venus and Plushies releases.

Are they worth it? Not at full price. They have their own charm but they are very warm, red toned and if you have the Venus XL you have these with great pigmentation (minus the white, blue and yellow). There’s a couple of shades that really nice but unless you’re a particular fan of the designs I’d pass.